captioning made possible by johnsonoh where quality products for the american family have been a tradition for generations good morning. i'm charles osgood and this is sunday morning. in this world, benjamin brang lynn once wrote, nothing can be said to be certain but death and taxes. with that most dreaded date, april 15 mere hours away, who are we to argue with franklin's words? we live in tax times all right. this year there's particular reason to take note as anthony mason will be reporting in our sunday morning dofer story.

>> reporter: as many of us scramble to finish our federal tax returns by tomorrow's deadline we thought it was high time to file a report on an occasion you may or may not feel like celebrating. the 100th anniversary of the income tax. the tax that was born in 1913 doesn't look a whole lot like we're dealing with now. >> it doesn't. top rate in 1913 is 7% which is a rate that most of us would be happy to be paying right now. >> reporter: just ahead a century of taxing times. our sunday morning cover story. >> osgood: a jet-setting political wife has been changing her tune of late going back to her roots and apparently also settling some scores. mark phillips with be taking her measure. >> she can charm the birds out of the trees. >> your name is really nice but it's a bit short to make a song. >> reporter: and embarrassed an interviewer. >> your mother can make a song.

marky, marky. >> reporter: carla bruni, former first lady of france, returns to her music. ahead on sunday morning. >> osgood: the name of a very small vessel that was a very big story a due decades back. now it's enjoying a new moment in the sun as serena altschul will be showing us. >> reporter: imagine setting adrift on a raft across the pacific ocean with no land in sight and no engine but plenty of sharks. >> this was a real adventure, a bunch of scandinavians crossing the pacific on a raft. >> reporter: the tall but true tale of the contiki later on sunday morning. >> osgood: cicely tyson is an actress whose latest role is all about going home in more ways than one. with lee cowan we'll be going

along. >> when you live longer than you have, you've lived too long. >> reporter: when cicely tyson takes the stage in the trip to bountiful later this month, it will be her first time back on broadway in 30 years. but before playing the role she made a trip of her own out to a deserted farm house in texas. >> this is something really very beautiful about being in this space. >> reporter: a trip to bountiful with actress cicely tyson ahead on sunday morning. >> osgood: rebecca jarvis shows us how the makers of purel are cleaning up. seth doane explores new york's perpetually unfinished second avenue subway. steve hartman has the story of an orphan who learned the truth of her background four decades later and more. but first the headlines for the sunday morning the 14th of april, 2013. after a visit to china, secretary of state john kerry arrived in japan this

for more talks aimed at diffusing the crisis with north korea. kerry said chinese leaders are also working to convince pyongyang to abandon its nuclear weapons program. president obama let the mother of one of the children killed in the newtown school shootings deliver his weekly address yesterday. >> it feels as if it happened just yesterday. and in the... >> osgood: francine wheeler called for help in combatting gun violence before, as she put it, our tragedy becomes your tragedy. a lion air boeing 737 crashed into the ocean and broke in two while attempting to land at an airport on the indonesian island of bali yesterday. 45 people were injured, but there were no deaths. and none of the injuries is reported to be serious. at the masters, brad sned kerr and is tied for the lead after three rounds. tiger woods who was penalized two strokes for an improper ball drop on fully fry is just four

shots back. you can see the final round at the masters later today right here on cbs. now for today's forecast. some rain drops may fall in awe gust a this afternoon and the upper midwest could see as much as a foot-and-a-half of snow. the week ahead will bring us typical spring weather running hot and cold, wet and dry depending on where you are. ahead, these taxing times.,,,,,,

>> osgood: nothing says taxing times quite like the realization that you have almost no time left to mail in your tax return yet. only until midnight tomorrow. remember? our cover story is reported now by anthony mason. >> reporter: the internal revenue service received a package recently addressed to its headquarters on constitution avenue in the nation's capital. it was not a tax return. no, mr. haynes' history students at j.f.k. middle school in florence massachusetts all sent birthday cards to the federal income tax because form 1040 turned 100 this year. >> this is the original tax form. >> yes, it is. 1913. you'll note only one page of instructions which would make people very happy.

>>eporter:he hangs in corridors of the i.r.s. building where nina olsen is the pat sheal appointed tax payer advocate. >> so only about 3% of the population was subject to the income tax. >> reporter: today it's 54%. gone is the single page of instructions from with its deductions for losses due to ship wreck. now, the tax code is more than 73,000 pages long. just figuring out what to pay eats up an estimated $6.1 billion hours o our tiac year. everybody loves to hate the i.r.s. >> easy. even if you like wha those tax dollars are doing, even if you feel thnets of them, you don't want somebody taking your money away from you. we constantly have to remind them that i.r.s. has nothing to do with the tax code.ress passe.

>> reporter: congress may get the blame now.e american people who passed the 16th amendment to the constitution, making the income tax ible. at first, it affected only the well off with a top rate of just 7%. but only four years later when we entered world war i, that rate soared to 77%. >> that's sort of the untold story of american history is the different points at which americans have supported the tax system, have supportedigher taxes for purposes and goals that they believed in. >> reporter: tax historian joseph thorndike says we may see ourselves as a nation founded on resistance to taxation, but that's only part of the story. consider the boston at a party. the grandaddy of tax rebellions. it was less about paying taxes than objecting to tax loopholes, granted to british companies. system hinges on the notion ofhe

t tax is a shared responsibility. when it starts to seem less shared, you're going to have a problem. because you have to make the tax payors feel like the system is fair because they're the ones paying the bills. >> reporter: by the 1920s, the wealthy who paid those bills had had enough. their champion arrived in the form of treasury secretary andrew mel loan, a banker who himself paid more in taxes than just about anyone in the country. >> the old joke is that three presidents served under andrew mellon. he was secretary of the treasury for parts of the harding, coolidge and hoover administrations. none of those presidents even approached him in terms of their influence on tax policy. he was the man. ♪ we're in the money >> reporter: during the roaring 20s and the great depression alike mellon argued that high

taxes hurt the economy. that they robin sent tiff from innovators and job creators. beliefs that still echo today. do you think the income tax, as it's structured now is fair? >> taxation is taking things from people who earned it and giving it to people who may or may not have earned it. fair is not the question. >> reporter: grover nor quist is the founder and head of americans for tax reform, a conservative lobbying group dedicated to, in his words, shrinking government down to the size it can be drowned in a bathtub. >> we all want one simple thing from our government. we would like to be left alone. >> reporter: and he's no fringe thinker. close to half of the house and senate, 258 members, have signed nor quist's pledge never to raise taxes. >> taxes are how you fund government. the question is, what is a lee

jet mate funn government? what isn't? should the government have farm subsidies? yes or no. it's a different question than if you're having farm sub des who do you steal the money from? sometimes they can go well we're not going to steal it from you so what do you care if we waste it? >> reporter: you use the word stealing. >> i'm sorry take by force. reporter: that's also a strong word. >> i'm sorry. okay. don't pay your income taxes and see what happens. they take it by force. that strikes me as an overdramatic analysis of the situation. >> reporter: historian joseph thorndike. >> taxes are what we pay to make the government go. i mean it's really not very complicated. you have a lot of stuff you want government to do. you want stop signs. you want paved roads. you want an army. you want social secure. you have to pay for these things somehow. asking people to pay for them that's not robbing them of freedom. that's asking them to pay the pies for the things they're trying to buy. >> reporter: according to a new pew research study out last week, a majority of americans dislike or even hate doing their

taxes. but 71% believe it's a moral obligation to report all of their income to the tax collector. >> it is part of our shared civic responsibility of being americans and living in the greatest country in the world. >> reporter: dave camp is one of the congress men who signed grover nor quist's pledge not to raise taxes. but the michigan republican is in a unique position. he chairs the house ways and means committee, the body responsible for writing and possibly reforming the tax code. >> i think many people have the sense that if only they could get the best lawyer or the best accountant, they'd be paying less than they're paying now. i think there is an appearance of unfairness. most of the higher-income people use most of the deductions so i think there's a sense there of, gee, the top end gets rewarded in ways that the average person doesn't. >> reporter: tax reform may help address questions of fairness.

and whether we expect our rates to go up or down, most appear to agree with the words of oliver wendell holmes inscribed on the i.r.s. headquarters. taxes, he wrote, are what we pay for a civilized society. >> i don't want to seem misty-eyed and all happy about the income tax. i personally hate paying them as much as anybody. i certainly hate the process of paying them. i don't think that that's entirely bad because it is a moment of connection, of reflection. it's a moment for everyone to sit back and think, okay, this is what i'm paying for. i hope i get my money's worth. >> reporter: most americans probably won't include birthday cards with their 1040 forms tomorrow. even a few members of mr. haynes' middle school class were less than celebratory. as adele wrote, happy 100th birthday, federal income tax, thank you for giving me one more thing to not look forward to as

i commence into adulthood. ♪ we're in the money ♪ we've got a lot of what it takes to get a loan ♪ ♪ we're in the money ♪ the sky is... >> osgood: next, meet the real j.c. penney. ♪

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>> osgood: and now a page from our sunday morning almanac. april 14, 1902, 111 years ago today. a momentous day on the frontiers of retailing. for it was on that day in kemmer, wyoming that young james cash penny jr. and two partners opened a dry goods store. >> i have a picture here on the desk of my first store. >> osgood: in 1957, penny recalled those early days for edward r. murrow on the cbs program person to person. >> i, being a country boy and not acquainted with city ideas, my first, as you know, started in a town of 1,000 people. i chose that because i felt i could get to the hearts of the people quicker in a small town than i could in a large wn

>> osgood: indeed he could. j.c. penney's first store made a pretty penny from the start. over time he bought out his partners, opened more stores and eventually put his own name on the sign. by offering low prices and fair the sign. by offering low prices and fair value, he became a top retailer while playing down any notion that he was a born salesman. >> i don't believe salesmen are born. i think that's a thing that must be acquired. >> osgood: j.c. penney died in 1971 as the age of 95. but his stores prospered for years. attracting a visit from prince charles and prince diana in 1985. and providing a familiar all american back drop for time travel in the 1985 film "back to the future." the j.c. penney's own road to the future proved a bumpy one.ef

who quickly reinvented the company by its founders initials. >> we're here today in the future jcp. >> reporter: on sunday morning in the fall of 2012 johnson showed off a flashy prototype of his store of the future to our anna westerner. >> in the age of the internet you have to do more than be a place to buy. you have to be a place people love to be. >> osgood: as it happened people loved neither the shop nor to be at johnson's new look stores. after losing nearly a billion dollars in the year ending this past february 2 the j.c. penney board made headlines this past week by firing ron johnson and by reportedly returning to the blackstone financial group to raise an equivalent amount of what was founder j.c. penney's middle name: cash. what goes on here? find out next.

we went out and asked people a simple question: how old is the oldest person you've known? we gave people a sticker and had them show us. we learned a lot of us have known someone who's lived well into their 90s. and that's a great thing. but even though we're living longer, one thing that hasn't changed: the official retirement age. ♪ the question is how do you make sure you have the money you need to enjoy all of these years. ♪ mmaybe another headache torwill get in the way.ears. if you have migraines with 15 or more headache days a month, you're living a maybe life. and you may have chronic migraine. go to mychronicmigraine.com to find a headache specialist. and don't live a maybe life. ♪

♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ the world needs more energy. where's it going to come from? ♪ that's why right here, in australia, chevron is building one of the biggest natural gas projects in the world. enough power for a city the size of singapore for 50 years. what's it going to do to the planet? natural gas is the cleanest conventional fuel there is. we've got to be smart about this. it's a smart way to go. ♪

>> osgood: a major project is still under construction and under foot in of new york city's most congested neighborhoods. seth doane leads us on a tour. >> reporter: in new york city, i tend to gaze upward. but these days or rather these years there's an equally stunning site looking down, way

down. up to 80 feet, eight stories below ground, workers are blasting their way through bedrock, building the first new manhattan subway line in more than 80 years. what looks like a sprawling underground mine was carved by boring machines as powerful as 12 747s rumbling beneath the streets of the most populous city in the country. as you might imagine, some new yorkers are not amused. >> it's been more or less a war zone. >>orr: war zone? construction of this subway line on maonmanhattan's upper east ss urged a pile of frustration complaints about rats, odors even a so-called second avenue cough caused by all the. dust >> all of a sudden ourle life was turned upsidedown, topsy-turvy.

>> reporter: is lynn cashman it's not a pretty sight. here we are on your balcony overlooking second avenue here. what's changed about the neighborhood? >> absolutely everything. reporter: now she gazes on to the above-ground scar from this giant public works project. and she says closing her eyes does not help. >> once this came in, we heard generated blasting, compressors going all night long. >> reporter: all of this is happening in one of manhattan's most fashionable neighborhoods, a section of the city that's more white glove than hard hat. that certainly has changed. stores have been forced to close their doors. in an area with 100,000 residents per square mile, it has become a construction zone. you're working in a pretty difficult neighborhood it's densely populated. >> new york. new yorkers are not easy.

>> reporter: it would be different in another city. >> absolutely. i think new yorkers are... have a sense of entitlement that other people do not have in other parts of the country. >> reporter: this man is chief engineer for this $4.5 billion project. >> be careful. reporter: he says his more challenging role may be chief charmer. you juggle an awful lot of personalities, not just down here but up there. >> right. it comes with the job. you know, that's what people made zantac for, to take away the heart burn. >> reporter: last month a worker was trapped for hours in quick sand-like mud though he was eventually freed and unharmed it was yet another delay for this 92-year-old project. so this is heading north? >> yep. reporter: there are all sorts of buildings above us. what challenges does that present? >> in general the biggest challenge is when we blast

because we create vibration that requires us to pay attention to the building's age, the building's foundations. >> reporter: you've got to be certain not to destabilize what's above. >> that's correct. reporter: the new subway eventually may carry commuters the length of manhattan's eastern edge. but stress that word "eventually" because there's only funding for the first leg of the project. about 1.5 miles just three stations. and did we mention it's taken nearly 100 years to get this far? why did it take so long to get started? >> it was started... well, one thing is money. >> reporter: simple. money, money, money. reporter: its first delay dates way back to the great depression. then there were the wars and economic woes that followed. of course there's the sheer complexity of the project. >> you have to be careful. you can't disrupt gas lines.

you can't interrupt water lines, suer lines. >> reporter: civil engineer, new york city college, calls the project an engineering feat rivalling the construction of the empire state building. and, he says, it's vital. >> if we don't reinvest in insphra structure in new york or washington these cities will begin to fall apart. people will go other places, and the opportunities will go away. china is not hesitating to invest. europe's not hesitating to invest. brazil isn't. >> reporter: in fact, the united states spends just 1.7% of its g.d.p. on transportation insphra structure. compare that to canada's 4% or china's 9%. you can understand why so many new yorkers face a daily commute like this. one-and-a-half million people a day jam the east side's closest existing subway line which, for

the record, carries more people than the subways of washington and boston. plus chicago's l combined. back beneath the streets workers -- they're called sand hogs -- are at it 24 hours a day. some of them followed their fathers into this line of work. including austin brady who has worked underground for 45 years. you're really an urban miner. is there something special about working beneath a big city as opposed to in an unpopulated place. >> sure. you get to go to all the nice neighborhoods and they never know you're there. >> reporter: well, she probably noticed. still michael promises all this work is well worth the pain. >> for better or worse, when we started this project, we married these people. so we have to make the marriage work. >> reporter: and like any marriage, sometimes you just

have to be patient. but there's light at the end of the tunnel. in three years, the first leg of the subway line will be completed. one-and-a-half miles down, seven miles to go. >> good-bye. osgood: next, actress cicely tyson's trip to bountiful. and later, a new look at the voyage of the kon-tiki. ,,,,,,

>> you're going to do something big. >> it's sunday morning on cbs, and here again is charles osgood. >> osgood: that's cicely tyson along with emma stone in the 2011 film the help in which tyson played the house maid working in the civil rights era south. in her latest role she's returning to the stage in a play that is all about the act of

returning. lee cowan has a sunday profile. (bells chiming). >> reporter: just outside the small town of wharton texas sits an old, abandoned farm house, a relic of an age gone by, forgotten except by time until recently when broadway paid a visit. >> this is something really very beautiful about being in this space. >> reporter: academy award nominated actress cicely tyson came all the way out here not as a tourist but as a sleuth of sorts to research her latest role. >> my gratification in working comes from the preparation and the building of the character. >> reporter: it turns out that old farm house is a character too. >> when you live longer than your house and your family, you've lived too long. >> reporter: tyson stars in the the revival of the 1953 drama

"the trip to bountiful." she plays a woman in the twilight of her life who longs to leave the big city of houston and return to her childhood home of bountiful. >> i want to go home. want to go home. i want to go home. >> quick, call a doctor. no doctor. no doctor. drop the phone. drop the phone. drop the phone. >> reporter: bountiful existed only in the mind's eye of pulitzer-prize winning playwright horton foote. it was his daughter who guided tyson on her mission to uncover the subtleties of the role. the play is inspired by this land where her father dpreu up. >> so this is the house. reporter: he was raised here in wharton. >> in here he used to write. reporter: he lived here on and off until he died in 2009.

geraldine page won an oscar playing mother watts in the 1985 film version. tyson never forgot that performance. >> good-bye, bountiful. reporter: when her chance came to play the part on stage... >> good-bye. reporter: ... she knew she had to make her own trip to wharton to really understand the role. is there anything specific you're looking for or just waiting for the town to sort of speak to you? >> i am just absorbing everything that is here. everything. >> reporter: it's a long way from her days growing up in harlem where her mother, a very religious woman, thought the world of modeling and acting was a den of iniquity so much so she kicked tyson out of the house after she landed her first job. >> my mother doesn't talk to me for two years.

>> reporter: was that hard? on you? >> yes, it was. but i also knew that what i was feeling was so compelling that nothing was going to stop me. >> reporter: and nothing did stop her. for a time she was one of the most talked-about actresses in hollywood. her seven-year marriage to jazz bright miles davis only kept her in the spotlight. as an actress she chose her roles carefully rarely taking on a character unless she felt it contributed something to the national dialogue on civil rights. >> i wanted to address certain issues, and i chose to use my career as my platform. >> reporter: and how did you go about doing that? >> just simply ruling out what i wouldn't do. films that dealt with us as less than human. the type that, you know, is great for making money for

producers but does nothing to enhance the race itself or women. >> reporter: in 1972, her performance as the white of a southern sharecropper in sounder earned her an oscar nomination. and then there was roots. where tyson played the mother of kunta kinte who was taken into slavery. how big an impact did that have on your life and your career? >> it is the one thing i believe that has touched every single culture and race. >> reporter: she is perhaps most identified with the autobiography of miss jane pitman, the performance won her a prime time emmy for actress of the year in 1974.

>> mom, it wasn't a den of iniquity after all. >> reporter: tyson played a former slave who lived to be 110 years old, long enough to see the civil rights movement. the scene of her sipping from a white only water fountain for the very first time remains iconic. when you look back, do you think you have made a difference? i hope so. i'm told so every day. and that's very rewarding. very satisfying. >> reporter: and still trying to make a difference especially here at the cicely l. tyson school for the performing arts in east orange new jersey. >> good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen. >> good afternoon. how are you? reporter: she put more than her name out front. she's actively

students' well being. how have you been since i last visited you? >> good. reporter: how ofte get. acting. tell her to pick that up. >> i won't. you will had. this is my house and you'll do what you're told. >> reporter: it's her first time back on broadway in 30 years and the first time the trip to bountiful has ever been staged with a black family. it's a fact not lost on tyson's costar vanessa williams. >> you're going to go too far for me one day, old lady who plays mother watts daughter-in-law. >> it takes me back to when i was a kid lying in bed watching tv and watching her in miss jane pitman. those were the performances that made me want to be an actress. >> reporter: really? absolutely. her image was part of what educated us about slavery, abbot her eerience as a black woman that she portrayed, you know, beautifully

in the pieces and in the work that she did. >> reporter: in a recent sunday service at the east gate baptist church back in texas, tyson was again in research mode. something else to take back to broadway. her fans look on her as much as a beacon of social conscience as an award-winning actress. cicely tyson seems quite happy to play both those roles. she won't confirm just how old she really is. by some accounts she's 88. do you think you're ever going to retire? >> there's no age limit on this. i'm not jane pitman. >> reporter: that could be you. osgood: ahead... >> reporter: that could be you. osgood: ahead... what are you guys crazy or something. >> osgood: ... a team of two talents.

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>> osgood: it happened this week, a loss of two performers as different as it's possible to imagine. annette funicello died monday of complications from multiple sclerosis. discovered by walt disney himself, annette was just 13 yeard in 1955 when she debuted on tv. >> it's time for the show.

osgood: atsz one of the original mouseketeers. a talented role model for girls... ♪ if you would be beautiful >> osgood: and a first crush for countless young boys, annette was the most popular by far. in the 1960s she moved on from the clubhouse to the beach. starring opposite frankie avalon in films such as beach party and beach blanket bingo. ♪ beach blanket bingo >> reporter: forsaking film for family for many years, annette shocked her fans in 1992 by revealing that she had been stricken with multiple sclerosis. >> there's a reason for this. and i know it's to help others. perhaps you can't change the world... >> osgood: she became an advocate for m.s. research but her worsening condition kept her out of the public eye in recent years. annette funicello was 70.

>> do you have anything unusual to report, lieutenant. >> reporter: jonathan winters died on thursday night of undisclosed causes, a genius of comedy, he made no bones about the source of his gift. >> you've got to admit that i am strange. you know something? i'm so proud of it. i'm so glad i'm weird. i'm so happy to be crazy. my name is... >> osgood: the only child of an abusive alcoholic father he grew up to create a galaxy of imaginary characters including one based on one of his aunts. >> what do you want to do? i don't know. what's your pleasure. if i told you that, we'd be off the air. >> reporter: winters' multiple personalities assured him of multiple guest spots on tv talk shows as in this appearance with johnny carson in 1991. >> we'll be moving out the first thing in the morning. >> okay. i'll be ready. >> good luck with your lady. okay. thank you. >> reporter: winters had movie

roles as well. including the 1963 film "it's a mad, mad, mad, mad, mad world." >> fellows, you keep this up and i'm going to get soar. i mean it. >> reporter: he was best at add libbing his own scripts going on his own experience. >> i lived on the edge all my life. >> reporter: even his hospitalization after a nervous breakdown in 1959. >> reality, as frightening as it is, is very, very funny. >> reporter: jonathan winters was 87. >> osgood: coming up. there was no one who could teach us how to maneuver. we had to learn by trial and error from the very first day a,

>> osgood: a tiny ocean-going craft kon-tiki captured the world's imagination more than half a century ago. now a new film is reminding us

how much its voyage taught us about the mysterious ways of the sea and about the equally mysterious determination of man. one particular man anyway. serena altschul welcomes us aboard. >> reporter: wow. it's rockin' and rollin'. this is nothing. >> this is nothing. reporter: climbing aboard this small wooden raft, you can't help but feel like you're stepping back in time. just to live here for three months and not set foot off the raft is amazing. it takes you back to 1947 when the original kon-tiki crossed the pacific ocean hole manied by norwegian adventurer and anthropologist thor. >> there was no one who could teach us how to maneuver the craft. we had to learn by trial and error from the very first day at sea. >> he believed that the oceans were... he spent ten years

trying to get his theory accepted. when nobody believed him he made a decision one day to go out and prove it. >> reporter: people thought he was crazy. >> he probably was. reporter: yesterday this replica was brought to new york city's harbor to promote the new film about thor and his legendary trip. >> go ahead. drift from peru to polynesian on a balls a wood raft. >> reporter: theirs isn't the first film about the expedition. thor himself won an oscar in 1951 for the documentary he made to accompany the best-selling book about his time at sea. was he a hero for you? >> of course. he touched so many people. including us. >> i think it's a good hero in the way that a l of the idols as they call them now that the young people have, from music

and all that, i think thor is a good alternative. >> reporter: after living in polynesia, thor became convinced that the islands were settled by explorers from south america to the east and not by people from asia to the west as is widely believed. >> gradually the possibility dawned on me that ancient civilization had arrived here from the coast of south america long before columbus reached america. >> reporter: to prove the voyage possible, he recruited five companions. >> we have a female on board. reporter: and one parrot to join him above the cramped 45-foot long raft for the 4300-mile journey from peru to the polynesian islands. >> the advantage of a raft is simply that water pours out just as quickly as it pours in. >> reporter: to ensure authenticity he insistedded on building the kon-tiki out of

balls a logs using the same construction methods and materials available to the ancient peruvians. >> the oashian, we haven't really started exploring that. >> reporter: we met these two men at the explorers club in new york where the very flag that flew on the kon-tiki still hangs. >> two years after the war people were really looking for something else. this was a real adventure, you know, a bunch of scandinavians crossing the pacific on a raft. >> reporter: the voyage of kon-tiki was a worldwide sensation. millions awaited the periodic reports from the on-board radio and the crew became instant celebrities. >> in a way it became the world's first reality show. because he brought with him two guys that could operate the radio. only one guy could navigate. >> reporter: but the journey was harrowing from start to finish. the raft was virtually impossible to steer. and without any sort of engine,

it was basically adrift at the whim of the currents and the winds. they were completely exposed to the elements, and constantly threatened by sharks. as for thor. >> and thor himself he was afraid of water. he couldn't even swim. >> reporter: he couldn't swim? makes an intlg character. reporter: to set sail on this adventure and this expedition and not be able to swim, he really was committing to something extraordinary. >> absolutely. in a way was we discovered i think that he would rather drown than be wrong. >> reporter: against all odds, 101 days after they launched, the kon-tiki reached the shores of polynesia ensuring thor would be considered among the greatest explorers of the 20th century. he completed the expedition. he succeeded. but do people believe the theory

now? >> no. that wasn't the point also because he wanted to prove that it could be done. >> what it proved was that the polynesian islands are within reach of prehistoric vessels from peru. >> reporter: but while the kon-tiki's journey is finishe finished... >> early man did not see the ocean as a barrier but rather as a means of communication. >> reporter: ... its legend continues to inspire. >> i think there's a lot of people out there that have a dream to do something, take half a year off work and then climb that mountain or whatever. and maybe this movie somehow can inspire them. >> reporter: to go for it. yeah. reporter: even if people tell you you're crazy. >> or you can't swim. reporter: or you can't swim. maybe learn to swim first.

i get to say thank you. osgood: next... to a man who took time to save a baby. >> osgood: reunion. ,,,,,,,,,,,,

years of unanswered questions recently ended in the joyful reunion of one dedicated and hard-working woman. steve hartman has her story. >> reporter: kimberly mitchell's life story has always been missing a few important pages. before her current job as president of a nonprofit helping veterans. >> kim. reporter: before she was a navy lieutenant commander, before annapolis, before wisconsin, before america even, who was she? >> if you're an adopted child you always want to know did your mother, did your father want you? >> reporter: the missing part of her story, if she could ever find it, would explain how she ended up at this or fan aj in vietnam. it was 1972.

war was raging. orphans were everywhere. none of them came with bios. her only real clue was her papers at the time. the name they had for her was one that means precious pearl. it's an unusual name which for kim deepened the mystery even more. in may of last year, kim's story about her search for her roots appeared in this vietnamese language magazine published here in the states. it's an obscure publication with a small circulation. but at least one man read the article. and hung on every word. in the article, it said she was abandoned at the or fan aj he said but i wanted her to noon she was not abandoned. this man fought on the side of the south vietnamese alongside the americans. he moved to new mexico after the war as part of a resettlement program and has been carrying kim's story with him ever since. as he tells it the city had just

fallen to the north vietnamese and refugees were streaming out of the city. it was his job to blow up this bridge outside of town to slow the enemy's advance and his company was about to do just that when one last survivor stumbled oto bridge. two survivors actually. "i saw a man carrying a hat with a baby inside," he said. "i ran to him. he described this tragic scene he found on the side of the road of this baby trying to nurse on her dead mother. i took the child from her." it's important to remember at that moment saving one baby was the least of this concerns, but he took it upon himself to see this child to safety. he also named her, precious pearl. kim and the man were reunited last month. he told her how big she had gotten. she told him two words. 40 years in the making. >> i get to say thank you.

to a man who took time to save a baby. >> reporter: thanks to the man, kim mitchell's life story now has its beginning. its hero. and its moral. >> you never know what one act of kindness will do. one act of kindness. >> osgood: ahead, beating the competition hands down. but first words and music by the former first lady of france. [ penélope ] i found the best cafe in the world.

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>> it's sunday morning on cbs. and here again is charles osgood. >> osgood: that's litt fpolls. mark phillips can tell us all about it. ♪ countdown to a new life o one.

♪ a little french song >> reporter: before she was carla bruni first lady of france the wife of nick lasarkozy, french president until a year ago, she was carla bruni the model, the internatio celebrity, the coverirl daughter of an italian concert pianist mother and industrialist father. she had also become a remarkably successful recording artist. now she's that person again. her new album, little french songs, is out this week. it turns out first ladies of france have some time on their hands and carla bruni spent some of it writing music and planning a comeback. is this album the fantasy you had while you were the first lady of france? >> i really never really wake up and said to myself, here i am the first lady of france. i didn't have such a conscience.

when there was public moment, then i would really try to be where i had to be next to my husband afternoon representing my country. but the rest of the time i just felt like, you know, me, always thinking about the children and things at the house. i never thought, oh, i am the first lady of france. are you sure i was. >> reporter: but you were. you definitely were. >> yes i was. it was a pleasure not an honor because it was coming from my husband to me. the main point was him. and his functions. so i to help him. and then i tried to help the people that needed help. i tried to represent the country. >> nobody knew how to frighten miss clavel. >> reporter: now the political constraints have been lifted. let's talk about the music. >> cool. reporter: this answers the question what were you doing for those five years? >> i did... i was writing the songs. the songs i would write them at

night. >> reporter: with an eye toward what, what you would be doing afterwards yosaid at the think it be appropriate. >> especially to go and play live in front of the audience. it was very hard to organize. you know, with the security. now i can go and sing live. i don't need to go to england or to germany or to america. to do it. >> reporter: is it like you can be yourself again? were having to suppress yourself? >> well, it's like i can do my job again. that's for sure. >> reporter: her previous three albums had sold pretty well. millf copies. a surprising number of them outside france. some say her celebrity status and political marriage didn't hurt. in fact, the last album before this one was released while husband sarkozy was president, they had met at a dinner party shortly after his divorce. they married after a whirlwind three-month romance.

not everybody thought her music with its occasionally racy lyrics lent dignity to the office. sure enough. there are songs on the new album that make some people uncomfortable as well. especially the one about someone called raymond but which is really about someone called nicholas. it is really about your husband. why didou name it that way. >> it was a song that was already existing. >> reporter: somebody took it already. >> somebody took it. really nice song. (singing the song). >> reporter: this song though i'm going to read it from the english lyrics. >> i don't know about the translation. >> reporter: it probably works better in french. >> although he wears a tie my man is a pirate. >> it's all about that. ♪

>> reporter: describing your politician husband as a pirate especially at a time when he's under investigation for possibly soliciting campaign funds illegally may be a little bit close to the musical bone. but for carla bruni, it's the song that counts. ♪ >> it's a song about a girl who says no matter he wears a tie he's like a pirate. you think maybe that but i don't. i don't think that when i write, i don't think that when i sing it. it's more fun. you know, it's fun. >> reporter: he's dynamite you say here. no matter what fools say, raymond is dynamite. >> yes, definitely dynamite. ♪ >> reporter: one song some people don't think is so much fun is the one everybody in france thinks is about the

current president of france, the man who defeated her husband in the last election. it's called the penguin, a derogatory french term. >> now that would be someone that you meet everywhere. someone who would say, hi, mark, how are you? you gain weight. you look tired. you know when you meet someone and he's really not nice. >> reporter: was there a particular penguin in mind when you were thinking. >> many many many. reporter: i was wondering whether you thought the current president. >> of course not. i wouldn't do that. >> reporter: still in the small world of parisienne political society her album is seen as something of a score-settling exercise, a response to the criticism by some people that the singer, who is now 45, never really adjusted to life in france's white house. there are all kinds of stories around -- and i'm sure you've

heard them -- that you didn't meld into the house and wanted to change this and that. >> i didn't change a curtain, a plate or an ashtray. i came into that beautiful, beautiful palace and stayed four years-and-a-half and really i thank the people that helped me there. i didn't change a flower. >> reporter: now there's talk in france of a possible political comeback by sarkozy. no other champion on the right has emerged. and francois holland the socialist battered by a failing economy and scandal within his government is spectacularly unpopular. it's not unthinkable that carla bruni will again one day be asked to stop playing her guitar and start playing the political wife again. could you contemplate being back in that role again? >> i'm not really concerned. it's very much for my husband. i am not my husband. i know most people think i am. but i'm not at all.

i'm very close to my husband but i'm not him. strange. isn't it? strange. isn't it? >> osgood: coming up, a hands-on . business. soap strips your skin. dove is different. with 1/4 moisturizing cream, dove doesn't strip your skin like soap. by the armful? by the barrelful? the carful? how about...by the bowlful? campbell's soups give you nutrition, energy, and can help you keep a healthy weight. campbell's. it's amazing what soup can do. [ agent smith ] i've found software that intrigues me. it appears it's an agent of good. ge has wired their medical hardware

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>> osgood: now and again we like to tell you about success stories across the country. people in business cleaning up. rebecca jarvis tells us it's quite literally the case for a family-run business in akron, ohio. ♪ stay away from kids because their head is filled with lice ♪ >> reporter: it's reached the brand nirvana. of being both a noun and a verb in pop culture. >> oh, dear. purell, purell, purell. >> reporter: yet the rise of purell, the balm of politicians

and germ owe foabs everywhere -- is something of an improbable tale. >> you could describe it as a ten-year overnight success story. >> reporter: mike richardson is an industry analyst at the fredonia group. >> they held on to the idea and kept pushing it. eventually it became probably a far greater success than they would have imagined at the outset. >> reporter: the company that makes purell is family owned. the hand sanitizer they've made famous is outside their wheel house. they're mostly known by businesses for their soap. >> my aunt goldy and uncle jerry in 1946 developed a hand cleaner to get grease and carbon black off working people's hands. it was called go-joe. the name sake of our company today. >> reporter: the ceo, joe, says his uncle jerry litman revolutionized their business by making one of the industry's first dispensers. >> as you might notice, this

handle. >> reporter: um-hum. that's an old window crank. as a small boy i used to go to the junkyard and look for old window cranks. >> reporter: how many old window cranks do you think you've found. >> i found a lot. i used to get rewarded. i found plenty. >> reporter: when he was in his 20s, uncle jerry gave him an even bigger reward, 50% of the company. >> with some wisdom he said to me, you know, if it's all mine, you might waste my money. but if it's half yours i think you'll take care of it. >> reporter: and take care of it he did. in the late '80s his company developed an alcohol-based hand sanitizer that was easy on the skin. he intended purell not for consumers -- that came later -- but for food and health care workers. how did you come up with the name purell? >> well, i didn't come up with the name purell. frankly i wanted the name... i wanted to name the product flash because i was so excited. it worked in a flash i thought. i thought i was being quite clever. >> reporter: they found the

right name, purell, as in pure. but finding customers was a struggle. >> it wasn't catching on. we were actually losing money right and left trying to sell it, trying to promote it. i think our sample budget was bigger than our gross sales. >> this allows multiple people to be around the sink at the same time. >> reporter: the problem, says go-jo vice president, was that in those days a hand sanitizer was a hard sell. >> because 20, 30 years ago, the paradigm was hand washing was the only solution. some people believed that the only way to reduce germs on hands was through hand washing. >> reporter: for ten years, the company lost money on purell. but it also participated in studies on the efficacy of hand sanitizers. in 2002 their work paid off. reviewing the evidence, the c.d.c. concluded that alcohol-based products kill germs more effectively than hand washing. and rewrote its guidelines for

hand hygiene in health care settings. that must have been very vindicating. >> it was very vindicating. it was a huge success. it was what some people in the hallways here call the race to the wall. >> reporter: as in hospital walls dotted with purell dispensers. business boomed. >> today we'll be testing three different sanitizers. we'll be using each of the sanitizers ten times. >> reporter: to grow that business go-jo regularly asks groups of people like these nurses to give feedback a new formulations of purell. the focus in this session is on how the product feels. >> smell, fragrance, odor. potential stinging. sticky, slippy, rub-in. all that kind of thing. >> reporter: they also beat up their dispensers. half their r&d budgets is spent on getting that right. >> we make a lifetime guarantee on the delivery system. we really build them to be

tough. >> reporter: go-jo now estimates that more than 100 million people worldwide use purell each day. to joe, the moral of the story is this. >> you need a little patience and a privately owned business adds a little bit more opportunity for patience. i probably would have been fired if i were working for anybody else. eventually it paid off. >> osgood: next, protest. 21st century style. breakfast-favorite flavors hem like salmon, egg, cheese, and whole grain oats. friskies. now serving breakfast. wthe sadness, anxiety,e pleasthe loss of interest. the fatigue and aches and pains.

depression hurts. cymbalta can help with many symptoms of depression. tell your doctor right away if your depression worsens, you have unusual changes in behavior or thoughts of suicide. antidepressants can increase these in children, teens, and young adults. cymbalta is not for children under 18. people taking maois, linezolid or thioridazine or with uncontrolled glaucoma should not take cymbalta. taking it with nsaid pain relievers, aspirin, or blood thinners may increase bleeding risk. severe liver problems, some fatal, were reported. signs include abdominal pain and yellowing skin or eyes. tell your doctor about all your medicines, including those for migraine and while on cymbalta, call right away if you have high fever, confusion and stiff muscles or serious allergic skin reactions like blisters, peeling rash, hives or mouth sores to address possible life-threatening conditions. talk about your alcohol use, liver disease and before you reduce or stop cymbalta. dizziness or fainting may occur upon standing. simple pleasures shouldn't hurt. talk to your doctor about cymbalta. depression hurts. cymbalta can help.

>> osgood: now something completely different. opponents of the late margaret thatcher who demonstrated in london yesterday seemed to be exacting sort of a leer calorie veng on the former british prime minister using an on-line veng on the former british prime minister using an on-line campaign they've propelled a song "ding dong the witch is dead" from the wizard of oz. ♪ ding dong, the witch is dead ♪ >> osgood: to the number one position on british i-tunes and to the top 5 of the b.b.c.'s weekly yountdown radio show seen as a new form of protest using social media to get your message albeit a nasty one heard. some members of the conservative party are calling on the publicly funded b.b.c. not to play the song. others say that's censoring dissent. the b.b.c.'s solution is to broadcast only part of the song along with an explanation.

all the while, the music plays on. ♪ ding dong the wicked witch is dead ♪ for pessimists and optimists. for those who love you a little and those who love you a lot. for ultimate flavor and great refreshment with or without calories. for carefree enjoyment. for those who have a lot to say and those who have nothing to add. for those who want to choose and choose. for every generation. for us. for everyone. forever.

>> osgood: here's a look at the week ahead on our sunday morning calendar. monday, the captain of the cruise ship cost a concordia goes to court in italy for a preliminary hearing on manslaughter charges. 32 people died when the ship ran aground early last year. on tuesday, many school districts in norway will postpone mid-term exams so their students can attend a justin bieber concert. wednesday sees the funeral of former prime minister margaret thatcher in london with dignitaries from around the world invited to attend. thursday is tax freedom day the day that the tax foundation says

we have earned enough money to pay all of our taxes and can start earning money for ourselves. friday is the 116th birthday of a man recently documented as the world's longest living male ever. and on saturday iraqis go to the polls in their first election since u.s. troops completed their withdrawal at the end of 2011. of course all week all eyes will be on north korea as it continues to taunt the u.s. with threats of missile attacks. contributor ben design says a former president would have known just what to do about that. >> i am directing a comprehensive and intensive effort to define a long-term research and development program to begin to achieve our ultimate goal of eliminating the threat posed by strategic nuclear missiles. >> ronald reagan was totally right when he said he wanted a ballistic missile defense system

comprehendsive enough to protect the u.s. from attacks. his liberal opponents scoffed, called it star wars said it couldn't possibly work. they blocked money for its deployment in any scale. in tests it worked rl. he might well have been right. there may be countries suicidal enough to attack the u.s. just recently israel and the u.s. working together created and deployed the iron dome defense system for defending israel from short range rockets from the terrorist hamas group facing a far more technologically difficult challenge shooting down a short range rocket within seconds not minutes as would be true, iron dome works well. so very possibly star wars would work too. now here's the question: north korea, a state run by a mentally ill person will soon be able to hit the u.s. with nuclear bombs. iran, a nation run by a group of insanely angry persons will soon

have that nuclear attack ability in terms of europe, israel and eventually against america. why are we not working to create an iron dome system for the usa? why as the challenge is real enough for mr. obama to beef up the limited defense systems we have don't we spend every dime we can find to defend ourselves against nuclear attacks? what more urgent priority do we have and yet we're not doing it? why? so what if it's expensive? what's portland worth? what's l.a. worth? what's seattle worth? let's get real here, people. we can defend ourselves and we're the crazy ones if we don't. >> osgood: commentary from ben stein. now to bob scheiffer in washington for a look at what's ahead on face the nation. good morning, bob. >> schieffer: good morning, charles. we're all about gun proposals and immigration reform. we'll talk to joe manchin of west virginia, pat too maniy of pennsylvania and senator marco

rubio of florida. >> osgood: thank you, bob scheiffer. we'll be watching. next week here on sunday morni we'll be watching. next week here on sunday morni morning, a journey to the future. [ male announcer ] for a love that never fades over any amount of time, there's iams. with 50% more animal protein than other leading brands... ...to help keep his body as strong as his love. iams. keep love strong.

i took my son fishing every year. we had a great spot, not easy to find, but worth it. but with copd making it hard to breathe, i thought those days might be over. so my doctor prescribed symbicort. it helps significantly improve my lung function starting within five minutes. symbicort doesn't replace a rescue inhaler for sudden symptoms. with symbicort, today i'm breathing better. and that means...fish on! symbicort is for copd including chronic bronchitis and emphysema. it should not be taken more than twice a day. symbicort may increase your risk of lung infections, osteoporosis, and some eye problems. tell your doctor if you have a heart condition or high blood pressure before taking it. with copd, i thought i'd miss our family tradition. now symbicort significantly improves my lung function, starting within 5 minutes. and that makes a difference in my breathing. today, we're ready for whatever swims our way. ask your doctor about symbicort.

i got my first prescription free. call or click to learn more. [ male announcer ] if you can't afford your medication, astrazeneca may be able to help. >> osgood: we leave you this sunday morning with a sure sign of spring. cherry blossoms in bloom in washington d.c. captioning made possible by johnson & johnson, where quality products for captioning made possible by johnson & johnson, the american family have been a tradition for generations captioned by media access group at wgbh access.wgbh.org

>> osgood: i'm charles osgood. please join us again next sunday morning. until then, i'll see you on the radio. ,,,,,,,,

about the teens arrested f f0 assault of audrie pott. bay area teenager's suicide is now fueling debate over

cyber bulling. new details over the teens arrested for the suicide of aubrey potts. there's changes ahead big time. the forecast in minutes. >> don't suggest it's a roadblock. you are entitled to stay in place if the voters want you and you are performing extremely well. >> rising political stars rally, and democrats have a closer look at what may be a generational gap in the party. >> it's 7:30. and i'm anne makovec.